Sunday, August 21

Along Came a Spider

The other day, I took a walk down a trail in silence and meditation. As I started to quiet my thoughts and try to create a sense of calmness in my body, I found that the trail was full of large spider webs, with the spiders quietly waiting in the middle of each one. I unknowingly ran into a couple, which disturbed my peacefullness and unnerved me a bit. To solve this issue, I picked up a long stick, and waving it in front of me while I walked, I was able to take down the webs before running into them. I wonder if spiders know what they are doing when they build webs right in the middle of a trail. Its terribly annoying to walk into one and trying to get it off of you is even worse. Nature these days...

A little farther and I found bench swing to sit on, and I had my Bible with me so I figured I'd sit and listen to God a bit...until I noticed the top of the stick I had. There was a spider that had hitched a ride along with the webbing I had collected and was working with it. I looked closer and was amazed at what I was seeing: he was taking the old and disorganized web and eating it, while at the same time, spinning a new one. He did this at the the spots on the stick where web had caught, and after about an hour, had created neat and intricate webs in places where the stick branched out. As I sat and watched, I finally opened my Bible to Hebrews, and leafed over to chapter eleven where it talks about faith, working in faith, and the faith that those in the Old Testament had in comparison to those after Christ.

In verse 39 it says that those in the OT were commended for their faith, but none of them received what was promised; they actually died seeing it in the distance. They worked and were led by God in their actions out of faith, and were even persecuted for what they knew was to come. But they never got to see it during their life. A commonality among each one of these characters is that they all knew their roles well, and did everything they could in that role in excellence, and when they came across a situation in disorder or chaos, they always left behind some kind of Godly order, something good.

The spider builds webs because its innate for him. Its in his nature to build and repair webs. He doesn't know what will happen in the future, and he doesn't bother himself with the issues in the past; he simply remains in the present, assesing his context, and builds a web accordingly. He comes across chaos and leaves behind something useful, something good. His ultimate goal is to make a perfectly intricate and flawless web and he does it out of pure faith with all of him. He doesn't reason or logically try to weigh the risks and benefits; he simply does what he knows he is called to. He knows he is a creation of the creator because he knows what he was created to do.

This is worship. To know what is in one's nature to do and to do it in faith and do it well, leaving behind order and peace.